Monday 31st October, 2016              1630

I sent a text to Brenda this morning as intended whilst I was on the bus to campus. Typically, I received a reply five minutes after the homeward bus had left at noon. Aside from complaining about the internet I had also reminded her that I still had not got a “preferred” Bank of China account. I should have kept my mouth shut because she had just returned from a friend’s wedding in Xi’an - so much for my evil thoughts that she doesn’t reply at weekends!

Her reply was that she would get the head of foreign affairs to call the IT department head. That I can handle but nobody ever tells anyone anything, if they made people aware that they know of the problem and they are working on it then people sit and wait patiently. If they don’t they complain, or at least I do. As far as I knew, IT didn’t know of the problem and were doing stuff all.

She also asked if we could meet this afternoon outside Lanzhou University (another uni near mine) and she would take me to open an account. Sod that, I was already on the way home, had no idea how to get back there anyway and didn’t fancy spending three or four hours of today on buses. I was tired. When I declined she stated I had to open an account today or tomorrow so I suggested I get Suzy to help me tomorrow if Brenda told her what to do. Reluctantly she agreed, reluctantly because she had already told her boss Mr Zhang that she needed the afternoon off to help me! She wanted to go shopping afterwards and basically skive. I promised that if Mr Zhang called me I would tell him I was en route to meet her. I haven’t been called so didn’t need to lie.

That however means my lie in is cancelled in the morning as I will get up at five to catch the early bus to school, open the account (unless my name is still sensitive) and then cool my heels until my afternoon class. I’m not looking forward to a thirteen hour stint between getting up and returning home.

I had just five students turn up today. When I asked where the rest were the consensus was that they were young, lazy and it’s cold. Well they won’t be cold in Cyprus and they will still be young but if they are lazy they can forget passing for masters. This is my first encounter with postgraduates and if this is to be a regular thing here then I am destined to make a lot of changes in how I conduct my classes. I am more used to lean and hungry undergraduates!

When I got back I never went to the supermarket, just the little shop and the vegetable stalls to get spuds and a carrot for my roast tonight. When I got home the internet was back! Praise be!!

For half an hour anyway, then I saw the internet man enter our building and minutes later it disappeared again. With a mere three hours’ viewing left and no intention of going to the hotel to log on to download (nothing would complete in a short time anyway) I am sitting here praying that by the time IT knock off they will switch it back on. And when the internet went off so did the water! Luckily my washing machine was on spin, having just finished but I’m not sure I will ever be able to trust either the water or the internet ever again here. The water did come back after ten minutes but to be frank I would rather have been put back online, at least until the morning when I will want a shower.

I keep going into my kitchen to tend to the cooking and because although it is cold outside, it is nice and sunny so the locals are out, togged up in their warm coats and sitting around nattering. The thought cropped up that I am living on the edge of the Dead Zone! I have never seen so many really geriatric people in one place outside of residential care homes! Maybe my being planted here was a deliberate act because of my age? I can’t envisage copying these old folk even were I twenty years older - sitting out there chewing the fat when I could be writing a book or at least watching a film. Still, they seem happy enough with their lot.

Tuesday 1st November, 2016                                 2000

This has indeed been a long day and one packed full of “fun”.

Absolutely shattered this morning but hoped to get an hour’s shuteye in the office before Suzy came to take me to the bank. Fat chance. I spent a while reading the news websites on the office computer, then rested my head on the desk. Just as I was dozing off Janet came knocking on the door. She wanted to treat me to lunch at twelve. Bye bye nap. I said to Suzy to come so we could finally get me an account. From leaving campus to getting back it took nigh on two hours, an hour in the bank because yes, I must be on an Interpol list for something - my name was problematic. They did ultimately open me an account though.

It was no sooner back to school, than Janet walked me to Pizza Hut for lunch and then afterwards insisted on showing me all around the shops. Lovely. At least no invading horde was there when it came time to take the bus home, although the traffic was terrible so it took an hour.

When I entered my building there was a young woman leaving so I asked her if she had internet yet. No, nothing for three weeks. I asked if she knew what the problem was and she said yes, there are notices on the wall (in Chinese of course) about the change of internet provider. Well how long should that take? Just call this number and then change your POP servers. Great, get someone speaking Chinese on the phone and learn how to change POPs. It’s farcical and now I know the problem is not due to breakdown it makes it even more annoying.

So I am back in the hotel trying to get at least a couple of programmes downloaded but it is slow. What I will do however, is take my laptop with me to school on Thursday and plug it in there, leave it running for four hours while I teach and hopefully get some entertainment for the evening. Now I WILL start squealing.